Anyway, on Friday, October 9th, the topic veered to Rush Limbaugh's proposed ownership interest in the hapless St. Louis Rams, and some black players' reactions being that they wouldn't play for the racist Limbaugh.
This brought out of Mike Wilbon the following statement (it may be important to the reader to know that Mr. Wilbon is a black man):
"I don't know whether Rush Limbaugh is a straight-up bigot, or if he simply plays one on TV and radio, but he is universally reviled by black people in this country and justifiably so based on his public proniouncements, constantly saying things that are offensive. I'm just going to mention one. He referred to the NFL by the way, in terms of the Bloods vs. Crips without the weapons and another point he said 'Slavery' and this is in context, 'had its merits' and he joked, I guess he joked, 'the streets were safer after dark.'"First, Mr., Wilbon, the Bloods vs. Crips quote, as you indicate you know, is taken out of context, and the slavery quote is totally unattributed to Rush and only appeared in a hit book published without sourcing the quote. So, essentially, you have taken one quote out of context, and another you chose to use as "in context" without knowing that there is no proof that Limbaugh even said it.
As Jay Nordlinger wrote in National Review this week, sportswriters should, like singers, just leave their politics at home. I know Tony Kornheiser is as big a Leftist as Wilbon, and yet, we never hear him injecting his political views, and certainly not using made-up quotes to further what may even be a valid point.
Wilbon's point was that the black community reviles Rush. Well, the black community reviles conservatives and Republicans, despite having so little to show for 50 years of fealty to the Deomocratic party, and, despite being fairly conservative in their own lives. I've never understood it, but, look, Wilbon, this community votes 90% for a party (the Dems) who have demonstrably taken them backward. Clearly, they have reason to revile those who oppose their chosen political party, even beyond charges (usually false, by the way) of racism - it's been drilled into them by leaders who really crave power, and have found it in the Donkey Party.
I would hazard a guess, that among black athletes, the support for Republicans is slightly better than the 10% of the general population of blacks, but, that would be based on their socio-economic plight (being rich, and all that) not their skin color. Conservatism tends to attract a lot more adherents after they start paying confiscatory taxes.
Wilbon also went on to discuss that players say Limbaugh doesn't get the culture (this was the crux of the segment, based on comments in this New York Daily News article). What culture is it he doesn't get? The one that aborts 30% of their children? The one that has a 70% illegitimacy rate? The one that glorifies misogyny and murder in rap music? The one that has elevated "thug" to something aspirational? The one where only 30% of black men graduate high school? The one that makes up 70% of prison populations (and, of those, 80% of the crimes are against other blacks)? If Wilbon is not familiar with THAT culture, perhaps that is because he hangs with black athletes, nearly all of whom have graduated from high school, and many from college. And, I somehow doubt Wilbon ran into many of this crowd at St. Ignatius Prep or Northwestern.
So, instead of using this as a means to address real problems in the black community, Wilbon (and the others who will pile on) wants to use it for conservative-bashing via commentaries on racism. This won't advance anyone anywhere. Instead, it foments the seeds of division and continues a meme that has been drilled into the black community for 40+ years now.
I challenge Mr. Wilbon to get out of the bubble he's in. Start with Daniel Patrick Moynihan's The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. Visit the writings of Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams and Bill Cosby and even Barack Obama. There are things holding blacks down today. Quite honestly, racism is not one of them.
